Director: Nadine Labaki
Year Released: 2018
Rating: 1.5

A 12-year-old Lebanese boy named Zain (Zain Al Rafeea) runs away from his negligent family after they marry off his 11-year-old (!?!) sister Sahar (Haita 'Cedra' Izzam), gets taken in by an Ethiopian immigrant who has a child of her own, Yonas, but then she gets whisked away by the authorities, leaving Zain to act as a father to Yonas and selling painkillers mixed with water for money.  I sympathize with the refugee issue and feel bad for children from destitute families, but this is so over-the-top - in every way imaginable - with filthy doe-eyed children covered with flies eating sugar-and-ice for some kind of sustenance and Zain getting slapped around by older folks and dragging Yonas through poorly-paved streets: it's pleading for audience pity and sympathy instead of actually earning it (as if that's not enough, Sahar dies, Zain stabs her husband and later takes Mom and Dad to court).  I guess it's brave in arguing that people who can't afford to take care of children should stop reproducing - a valid point in an already overpopulated world - but that's the sole takeaway.